Compulsary sport in schools, good or bad?
By Pirate_Arg
@Pirate_Arg (472)
South Africa
May 21, 2008 4:57pm CST
At my school, there is a general guideline that everyone should be taking part in at least one sport, the overly glorified sport being rugby. I can see that there are some health benefits to this but sports are dangerous. Should somebody really be put in the position where they are forced to take part in an activity that could potentially kill them? It is not uncommon for boys playing rugby to break their necks. It is not uncommon for faces to be broken in hockey matches by wayward hockey balls and sticks. Even supposedly non-contact sports have the potential for bad injuries when opponents get overly competitive.
Is it really alright to force children into these sort of situations?
1 person likes this
5 responses
@bertuah (60)
•
25 May 08
I think it is good to have compulsory sports in school. I do not have kids but I have 2 little sisters in primary school and high schools. I always encourage them to participate in sports as they will balance their diet and maintain the body functions. As my little sister always eat too much..lol that is her habits...I say that maybe sport activities will help her to reduce her weight.
@Pirate_Arg (472)
• South Africa
25 May 08
Sport really is useful in terms of staying healthy and weight. A different approach to weight loss is some more active electronic games. Jumping around on a dancemat or in front of an eyetoy can also be thought of as active activities. I'm sure a read a story a while ago about some woman that got really into Dance Dance Revolution and lost a huge amount of weight.
@Pirate_Arg (472)
• South Africa
6 Jun 08
The point is that it doesn't really matter what you get to do, as long as you get your heart rate up a bit. Keep your heart on its toes, use up some of that excess glucose in your blood stream thanks to eating a bit too much (I'm sure lots of people eat more than they shoud/need to just because food is nice).
@rawat2500 (80)
• India
25 May 08
I think sports should be compulsory in all the schools because it helps in the overall development of the students.
It also help them to open up and see what the team work is.
@Pirate_Arg (472)
• South Africa
25 May 08
You bring up team work but I don't think that everyone gets the benefit of team work. Have you ever noticed that when teams are chosen, there are always one or two people left at the end that nobody wants on their team because they are the weakest player? Even though that person is on a team because everyone needs to be included, they are pretty much excluded when it comes to the game. Nobody ever passes them the ball (the ball tends to stay between the 3 or 4 strongest players) and so they are not even really a part of the game. How is that helping to open them up to team work?
@thebeaddoodler (4262)
• Lubbock, Texas
21 May 08
I feel like schools are preoccupied with sports. They will cut every other activity before they'll cut the most popular sport of their country. Drama, arts, music all can go by the wayside, but we simply must keep sports.
I do believe we should have Physical Education in our schools, and that may include playing one sport or another, or in my day, as long as you were physically active for that hour you got credit for the subject. Sometimes we just played table tennis, but we were active.
I do not believe children should be forced to play a "sport" in school. I thing every school should have a class that keeps them physically active for the alloted time, but forcing a specific sport on them is not right in my opinion.
@Pirate_Arg (472)
• South Africa
22 May 08
I agree with you completely. Our school has a complete lack of cultural activities but in terms of health it is a good idea to have a point of physical activity but some people don't like certain activities so there needs to be variety. For example, in our PE classes in the summer it was always swimming. I hate swimming with a passion. It is cold and wet, not an enjoyable situation for me. Even if there are options within the lesson, like get everyone to break into groups and do any one of a list of activities so everyone can do something that they don't mind doing with people that they can get along with.
@Anne18 (11029)
•
22 May 08
I think there should be compulsary sports in all schools today. But htere should be more choice so everyboby can join in.
In school you do spend a lot of time sitting in the classroom, more so if you are aged 11 upwards and once you get into secondary school you tend to do less excercise as you don't want to spend your time running around in the playground, therefore there should be more choice of what sport people can take part in.
Taking part in a sport is good, winining is extra, as longs as you have enjoyed playing that sport.
I don't think anyone should be put in danger playing a sport that they are not keen to play
@Pirate_Arg (472)
• South Africa
22 May 08
I suppose one of the reasons that I'm so annoyed with my school is that they don't have a good selection in my opinion. There are the popular sports like, rubgy, soccer cricket, hockey, netball etc. but that doesn't help me because I'm not much of a team player. I do karate at least twice a week (I'm going for my black belt next wednesday) and I would consider myself quite fit but that doesn't stop the school from giving me grief over not doing one of THEIR activities. At the same time their cultural side is seriously lacking so I do that outside of school as well. When it comes to extramurals, I'm busy every afternoon and I still get the "not doing enough for the school" story from the teachers.
@Pirate_Arg (472)
• South Africa
25 May 08
Some people do not know what is good for them though. For example if someone is overweight then a bit of exercise which the would not have otherwise done would be good for them.
I'm sorry if I seem to argue against what everyone (including myself) says but it is just my style of arguing. Most issues have valid points for and against them.
